The Price of Loyalty
by Sir Heroden
Summary: After freeing Percy against his father's commands, Nico ponders his punishment and wonders where his loyalty really lie. In his father? Or his friends? But despite which one he chooses, there is a high price to be paid. Set during TLO. Mild angst. Oneshot.


**AN: ****I hope you enjoy this story! The writing style is a bit different to my other pieces due to the fact that this was written a few years back. Nevertheless, please favourite and review if you liked it! ~H**

**Disclaimer: This story belongs to Rick Riordan and the various writers of Greek mythology. **

.

**The Price of Loyalty****  
**

In the Greek world, three is a sacred number.

There are three fates, three main gods, three realms, three parts of the Underworld and a whole lot more threes that would have taken too long to list.

Right now, there were coincidentally three things that Nico found hard to believe.

He couldn't believe that Hades had tricked him. Weren't fathers supposed to be sympathetic and honest and whole lot of other things that his wasn't?

He couldn't believe that his cousin and friend, Percy had just abandoned him in the Underworld. So much for helping him escape…

But most of all, he couldn't believe that he had been so _stupid_.

The demigod trudged along the Styx, kicking random pebbles to release his frustration. The stones bounced into the water and caught alight with blue fire before sinking below the surface of the dark water.

His overworked body pleaded for him to take a break, but his mind beat back its complaints and began briefing him on the not-so-great events of the day.

First, he had led Percy to the Underworld to bathe in the Styx. Ignoring that unease that he had felt as he took the son of Poseidon on a little detour.

Then, his father used a loophole in their agreement, exploiting his desire for information about his mother, and thrown Percy in jail to die.

Lastly, he had risked facing his father's wrath to rescue Percy, his trusted friend and cousin. Said person then took a dip in the Styx, beat up his father and abandoned him.

The young man wanted to bang his head against something really hard.

Nico had always known Hades was a tricky god, but he had always thought that the king of the dead would at least be honourable.

In fact, he had always thought that he was a better god than Poseidon and Zeus.

When someone angered either of latter, they would either be struck down with lightning or a huge tsunami and if anyone else were unfortunate enough to be in the area?

Well, that was just too bad for them.

On the other hand, if someone offended Hades, the god would wait until said offender died (not by his hand) and sew them in his robes forever.

It sounded pretty bad, but at least the offender got to live a full life and no innocents were killed. In any case, all dead souls belonged to Hades anyways.

Surely Percy knew that he wasn't part of his father's elaborate murder plot! It seemed that his thick-headed cousin probably didn't though- or why else would he leave him in here in the Underworld?

Anger welled up inside him, how could Percy not be the slightest bit grateful that Nico risked everything to save him? Did he not consider the punishment that he would probably face?

Even the thought of the punishment made him want to hide in a hole forever. His father's wrath would be horrible.

But, a little voice at the back of his head told him that he deserved it. He had, after all, directly disobeyed his father's orders to rescued Percy (nearly got killed doing it), got them to the Styx (nearly got killed again) and made the guy invincible.

The rest of this mind wanted to strangle that little voice at the back of his mind.

Percy had _repaid_ him by telling him to stay in the Underworld to 'persuade' Hades to help.

_Persuade him? Yeah- maybe I'll do that after he kills me for disobeying him…_

A weeping spirit distracted him from his thoughts by leaping out of nowhere and grabbing on to his jacket.

"Please, Lord!" the pale shade of a woman sobbed, "This is a mistake! I don't belong here! My children are waiting for me!"

Nico felt his heart twist in sympathy for the woman's fate. The fact that she could still form proper sentences and had some colour left meant that she was one of the newly dead. She probably still didn't understand that she would never see her children again.

Despite feeling truly sorry for the many spirits that recognised him as a son of their king and beseeched him to take them back, there was nothing he could do for them. All souls stayed in the Underworld and that was that, it didn't matter if you were a beggar, or a millionaire in life- the moment you died, you had a blank slate.

Death was fair.

Only heroes got in Elysium and a special few got to have another chance at life. It was just the way things were, and neither he nor his father could change the laws of death.

He pushed the spirit off and walked past her wailing form quickly. He had long since learned that it was no use talking to them. Reason seemed to be the first thing that was forgotten after death; probably because lots of people didn't have it in the first place.

Most of the time spirits just whispered and moaned meaninglessly with only a few words that were coherent.

Absentmindedly Nico kept walking and soon a new body of water appeared to his left.

The new river was milky white and the exact opposite of the Styx. While even a sight of the latter ensured that you would never go near it (unless forced), even the sight of the new river was mesmerising. Nico found himself staring at the way that it flowed like silk. He wanted to reach out and stroke a hand along the surface to see if it was as soft and cool as it looked.

He realised with horror that he had actually reached out a hand and had taken several steps towards the water. _Gods…_

One drop and all his memories would be gone; nevertheless, he crept closer carefully.

The River Lethe was the opposite of the Styx, while the latter was dark and foreboding and former was soft… comforting… beautiful… perhaps he should…

Nico jerked his once again outreached hand back and decided that it was too dangerous to be hanging around here.

This was where the five rivers started to converge and eventually fell into Tartarus.

Tartarus.

Even the name had a foreboding ring to it. As if all the pain, hatred, darkness and evil in the world had been collected into that one word. Nico shivered as he remembered the warning his father had given him about the place.

"_You are free to go to any part of the underworld",_ his father had boomed, "_But you DO NOT go anywhere near Tartarus!"_

Nico had of course nodded and promised him, but curiosity was always a powerful catalyst for breaking promises.

He _would_ go there to have a look. _But not today, _Nico thought as he found a dry place to sit near the banks of the Styx and thought about what to do.

Due to Percy's insistence and the fact that he had no other options anyway. Nico decided to return to his rooms in the palace.

As the familiar sensation of shadow travel engulfed him completely, he felt that the shadows were not responding to his commands like normal, instead he felt a tugging sensation, almost like an invisible hand directing him to another location instead of his chambers.

He wasn't surprised when he found himself landing in a sprawled heap on the hard, cold marble that was his father's throne room. The Son of Hades rose and dusted himself off nervously.

He gave a start when he rose and found a wall of dark robes blocking his view.

Despite being of a decent height for his age, his father always towered. Nico secretly suspected that his father used his godly powers to change height to intimidate his son. I_t works_, he thought.

"Father." he knelt quickly.

Hades did not even acknowledge his son, but instead stepped carefully around the boy and strode towards his throne. Knowing that it was rude to have his back to the god, Nico shuffled around just in time to see his father glide up the last few steps, robes billowing out behind him.

The Lord of the Dead settled himself on the seat of bleached bones and casually pinched a struggling soul in his robe to stop it wriggling it around.

"Do you understand the consequences of what you have just done?"

Nico felt like crawling into a hole and hiding forever. The shadows thickened uncomfortably and the shrieks of the dead spirits outside grew silent, as if all waiting for his response.

"Father, I-"

He didn't get much further. Moving as quickly as a panther the god appeared in front of his son. He backhanded the boy and towered over the dazed demigod.

"How dare you release my prisoner?" He hissed.

Nico stared at him in shock.

There was a brief flash of regret in Hades' eyes, but then they hardened. "You freed Perseus Jackson and defied my direct orders."

Nico managed to pull himself out of the spell of danger and anger his father radiated and stood up shakily, "I promised him that it was safe to come here, I was just keeping my promise."

"I was giving you the chance to succeed. If Perseus was dead, you would be the child of the prophecy. You would bring acceptance and honour to our family." Yet you defied me!"

Nico felt a wave of uncertainty outcome him. What if he had been wrong to free Percy? The selfish way his cousin acted today made him doubt whether the son of Poseidon would made the right choice when needed? What if he had done the wrong thing, and with his short-sighted views, gave the victory to the Kronos?

Hades' eyes flashed murderously.

"Get out of my palace!" He roared, "You are disgrace to the House of Hades. I wish I never fathered you!" The enraged god turned and began the desolate walk back to his throne.

Nico exited the room in a hurry, his vision blurred by tears that he was barely able to hold back.

His father's parting words rang again and again in his mind.

Half an hour later, when he finally found his way through the maze of corridors back to his room, Nico sat down on his bed and wondered if he should have dipped his hand in the River Lethe after all.

oOo

**AN:**** Thanks for reading! Feel free to provide feedback, all constructive criticism is welcomed! A thank you beforehand to all those who do :) **

**~H**


End file.
